Clive martin

Hi Rob your layout is looking fabulous ,i love the way it is growing it reminds me of the evolution of your Pallet Lane a layout i had the pleasure of speaking to you about several years ago at the Peterborough show whilst enjoying watching Peafore Yard!

I love the look of this layout even without any stock it just looks southern electric.your track plan looks like it will provide a lot of operational interest in quite a small space!

I have made a bit of progress on Longwitton's station board over the last week. I realised on closer study that the landform from the road bridge went down behind the grounded carriage so, I have extended what I had built. I also decided that my original station building was a bit rough so decided to build a better replacement. This building has proper foundations so that it will sit into the platform rather than being placed on top of the platform the benefit of this method is that their will be no gap underneath the building when it is on the platform. This is the platform with the station footings cut out. I used my fantastic Dewalt multi tool to do this. I don't know how I would manage without it. I have also moved the telegraph pole nearer to the building as after study of the prototype I realised that I had placed the telegraph pole in the wrong place! This is the new building under construction, like the prototype it sits on a brick base that will be sunk into the footings on the platform. The small flower border will also sit on top of the platform. I think this building is quite an improvement on my previous build having spent greater effort on the sash windows. The roof will be fixed in place once the building painted and glazed. This photograph shows the station nearing completion. I have improved all the previous scenic work using hanging basket liner for the embankments. I am very pleased with the appearance of this as it gives the grass a late summer early autumn look. To add a bit of extra colour I have added the odd bit of course turf. To bring the station forward to its later 1960s condition just before closure of the line I have also moved the fencing forward on the platform, something that happened at Longwitton .I have improved the platforms representation of its ash surface with a coating of grey tile grout applied through a sieve onto a coat of PVA .Once this had set I have given the platform some static grass to give the station a slightly run down and overgrown look typical of the prototype near to its closure. The building just now needs to be painted. The backscene board is not yet fixed in place I have given it a coat of sky-blue paint. I am thinking about using acrylic paints to have a go at painting some distant hills and clouds. I am really happy with the outcome so far and looking forward to completing this project.

I think you can have as many as you want of the same class of locomotive in the same livery as you want as long as they dont all have the number,our model railways are small bits of a much larger system, the real railways have fleets of the same types of locomotive that more than one example can often be seen at the same location ,my local station Ipswich back in the 1980s was always full of class 31 37 and 47,so my advise is have as many examples of any type of locomotive as you want !

I remember back in the 1980s class 105 units working in east anglia that had never been refurbished these looked very tired, even the class 101 units that had been refurbished soon started looking scruffy the second class saloons never looked to bad but those super comfy seats in the former 1st class sections often had arm rests covered in black insulation tape,i think it is a poor show that cross countrys voyagers are now looking so worn when people are paying such high fairs,this is far from a premium product !

They say you learn something new every day,i had no idea that tmc/ Bachmann have produced a G5 this is something that has never been on my radar i am very much a diesel and electric man i only have 3 steam locomotives in my collection as my main interest is classic BR diesel traction ,i could be tempted to a G5 ,i think i will run my Longwitton like Ian Mandersons Hartburn with a scenario of the branch staying open a few years longer allowing the use of a few diesels!

That class 25 runs very well ,i am also going to use diesels on my 4 mm scale longwitton i have a 2 car class 101 dmu a type that did in fact make it to Rothbury on the odd special , a class 25 and also a class 17 clayton will be used not sure if either of these types ever ran on the Rothbury branch but both types did run in northumberland ,i thought about an Bachmann 2mt but it seems these can be poor runners judging from the feedback i have seen !enjoying seeing your longwitton come to life.

Hi Richard it is a great shame about the buildings being demolished at least they survived long enough for Ian Futers to survey back in the 1970s, looking at the photographs on your thread the photograph of the contractors demolition train hauled by a Fowler diesel locomotive the station looked like it had just been repainted prior to the closure of the line!

Hi very sorry to hear that you are on chemo, a bit of railway modelling could be just what you need to help you through this tough time in your life,a good way of finding rolling stock at good prices is to just key in pre owned model railways into your search engine ,their are a lot of retailers selling pre owned items on line Howes of Oxford sell their pre owned stock at very good prices ,another retailer that has good prices is Elaines trains ,it is well worth spending a few hours checking out as many retailers as you can find on line although res livery stock does not come up very often ,the GUV vans in RES livery by lima are well worth checking out these seem to go for a lot less than the Bachmann examples also replica railways mk1 BG is a very nice model i am not sure if they have ever been produced in RES livery ,but i think you can still purchase them brand new from replica railways in various liverys includeing royal mail red i hope this is of some help to you ,my thoughts are with you whilst you are undergoing your chemo treatment all the best clive.

Great to see that you have got Longwitton up and running ,that 2mt and short rake of wagons look well at home ,in 4 mm scale rtr we are very lucky that oxford rail have produced a J27 a signature locomotive for the Rothbury branch,i realy admire your skill building your own track something i just dont have the talent to do myself!

I have just edited my first post to include some photographs of my progress so far,although longwittons track was replaced by concrete sleeper track in the 1950s i have used wooden sleeper track as that was what i had in stock when i built the diorama,the new back scene on the station board will be refitted to line up better with the new board !

Hi Richard i was delighted to discover your thread last week, it looks amazing what you are doing, i hope to get some pictures up soon ,those photograhs from North eastern are priceless, Longwitton seems to have been very camera shy so these photographs are very wecome !

Thats interesting trust the DfT to scupper what could have been a great train,i bet it would have come in at half the cost of the IET project,i am sure their was even a plan for an electric version of the hst back in the 80s,i also remember BR had plans for 5 car hsts with one power car + a DVT!

Sad to see them go ,a real classic design i dont think they have dated a bit in the 40 + years they have been in service ,it s just a shame that the trains replacing the hst fleet are inferior in terms of comfort ride quality etc, just a thought i wonder if the railways had not been privatised what British Rail might have had to offer as a replacement for the hst fleet ?

Ali have you taken a look at the disused stations web site ,although its no help to you at the moment they are working on the Reedsmouth junction and wanny lines, despite being located miles away from Northumberland in east anglia i have become a big fan of the long lost border counties railways,i keep going back to Ernies railway archive on flickr his photographs are superb inspiration,

Hello guys having been checking out lots of superb model making on rmweb for quite a few years i thought it was about time i started a thread about 1 of my 5 layouts under constuction,i just hope my work is of a good enough standard! Having always wanted to build a model of a real location Longwitton was the perfect prototype ,a simple track plan no signals and just 1 building another factor is the fact that Longwitton can be built to scale in quite a small space,the railway modeller April 2014 article about the history of this simple little station + the scale drawing of its building and the purchase of the December 1977 RM complete with Ian Futers Longwitton layout inspired me to have a go at this long closed prototype,i built just the platform section as a diorama sbout 5 years ago with the intention of one day buildig a proper working layout! Fast forward to Sep 2023 i have just started building a second section of the scotsgap end of the station starting with the B4342 stone bridge that still stands over the old railway track bed at this remote location ,i hope to post some photographs of my progress over the next few days! Above is Longwitton, built as a diorama with its original backscreen. This is being replaced with a new piece of plywood. The back of the station building with maybe the most attractive part the 3 brick chimneys that sadly wont be seen once the back scene is in place. Above is looking towards Scotsgap with the new board plus the stone over bridge and showing the progress i have made with the landform Above is the classic view overlooking the station towards Rothbury from the road bridge. The scenic break at the Rothbury end of the station will also be replaced.

Thanks mike for the link!

With the full backing of Freightliner ,Brian a driver employed by Freightliner has started a fantastic new channel well worth checking out ,in the last week he has been on crewe to wembley turns ,he has some great class 66 cab and engine room footage + lots of views from track level all done fully safety compliant,the highlight for me so far is the class 90 walk round cab and equipment room tour,i never knew the class 90 had a shunting driveing control desk near the cab door on the secondmans side,so if you like lots of inside gen facts etc this is the channel for you ,Brian is not just a train driver but a real enthuisiast and its quite obvious he loves what he does for a liveing,so please guys take a look at his channel and i am sure he will provide us with plenty more great videos of his life on the rails!

You are correct Peterborough is still a great freight hot spot ,sadly the passenger railway is just not the same except for the remaining class 91 mk4 sets ,and the charter trains loco services west coast railway company etc,liveing in suffolk seeing class 43 hst sets was always a treat i will never forget the thrill of seeing them hammer through Huntington and watching them leave Peterborough crossing over onto the fast line ,the best bit was always the rear power car screaming past,back in anglia it was always the first gen dmus that i took for granted like the old class 105 cravens Ipswich was always full of them now sadly their are only 3 cravens vehicles left,another freight fav of mine was the ketton to castle Bromich cement tanks that used to run to Peterborough for its loco to run round and head back out on the Leicester line often a class 25 or 45 great days ,i realy must stop my waffle i could write a book about my memorys of the way the railways used to be 30+ years ago seems like yesterday to me!

I love what you are creating fantastic work,i have had a long interest of the railway at silver town since the early 80s when railway modeller had silvertown as a layout idea track plan,their was something i liked about the photographs of rail blue class 105 dmus and the silvertown tramway with its gated entrance to the scrap yard,your windows for your building look great i am constructing a 7 floor office building for my layout it was not until i had cut all the windows out that i realised i had just cut out 164 windows,so i think your method ofmakeing your windows is a very good idea ,keep up the great work on this very nice looking layout!

That sounds like a great what if location ,back in the mid 1980s i spent many happy weeks on peterborough station when i was on leave from work,the daily fly ash train to Fletton was always a bit special quite often a brand new class 58 was at the helm ,class 45 and 56 could also be seen on this working,i always felt a bit uninterested if a class 47 showed up!today i would love to see a 47 on a long rake of those presflo wagons!

Hi its a shame you removed your terminal as what you had done looked very neat and tidy ,you had some rather nice low relief buildings behind the station , i could not see any cliches on your layout i have seen plenty of exhibition layouts that have every cliche in the book ,buildings on fire Del boys reliant van etc ,i think you are quite hard on your self i dont think you need to worry if you think your work is not up to a standard to be published on RMweb i dont think their are any standards required on this forum,i get a lot of pleasure from seeing felow modelers work and layouts ,their is always something that catches my eye when veiwing layouts,for instance your rather nice 4cor emu in the photograph of your terminal,i look forward to seeing your progress with your new oo scale venture ,

Hi your mesh side oba looks pretty dam good ,the camera can be cruel when photographing small scale models ,with a name like Fletton Road is your layout going to be set in the Peterborough area! I look forward to seeing more of your stock projects and layout.

Very sad news ,although i never meet George i have always been a big fan of all his layouts, the first time i became aware of George was one of his layouts in model rail many years ago,he built so many classic layouts over the years ,watching exhibitions on you tube it has been a joy to hear George talking to people ,a true gentleman and a giant of our hobby rip George